Wednesday, January 30, 2008

A little late on my Manly Wednesday post. The man is keeping me down. Someone quit, and I’m doing the extra work sans extra pay. Oh, the man. The upside is I have a coworker who told me about the Beer Advocate. I’m down. It’s a magazine and extensive website about beer beer beer beer beer. I says to myself, “wonder if they’ve reviewed that delicious Breckenridge beer I have out in the beer fridge?” It’s like asking the king if he lives in a castle. Not only did they know of this beer, they reviewed the actual joint that brews it, and 21 different brews they crank out. “Hey, Rolling Stones, do you like rock and roll?” Let me crush you with my knowledge Baldman.

Monday, January 28, 2008

I powered up the band saw last nite, and attacked this piece of gummy cherry wood, that used to be in a nice plank form- now it’s in these little bits. Mostly uniform bits too… and I have 10 fingers still. Next, I’m going after a similar piece of curly cherry, in hopes that the final outcome will be a wicked rad wooden capiz-shell-wannabe chandelier. The saw’s still hungry.

I think the first time I heard about Loyal Loot was looking up these great log bowls. I like that stuff. I’m currently trying to make a clock out of my fallen branch in the back yard, with a semi- similar take.

After checking them out further, I see a. it’s run by a gaggle of ladies, b. they are from Canada (go figure), and c. they have other woody items I want to check out… like this coat holder type thing they call Monsieur Dress Up… French Canadians. You know. I like bent up wood. And this is way bent up.

These are the Bonnie and Clyde nesting tables- a mahogany, rubber and plywood concoction. I’ll take the tables with the slender, faceless number on it… sometimes you gotta roll the dice.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

It’s cold and misty outside right now. When it gets this way, I like to picture the time my family took a winter trip to England, and the Albion Inn in particular.

It’s a proper English pub, and the kind of place I’d like to go to here in Austin, but you can’t have one in Austin, because it’s in Texas USA, and not Chester UK.

The place has been around since the 1880s in the old walled city of Chester (our dog’s namesake by the way), and they’ve been pouring ale out of their taps the real way… no carbonation added to start that beer flow, but old-fashioned muscle strength was used to pull up the ale from kegs down in the basement.

We ate haggis and turkey and some sort of Guinness meat pie… we asked what Christmas pudding was, and the answer the cute, young waitress gave us was, “Christmas pudding is Christmas pudding.” We had some. The old guys at the table next to us were talking about Fox Hunting. I wish I could be there right now.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Welcome to your weekly installment of Manly Wednesdays. Today we focus on the company Science and Sons. I don’t know what’s in the Canadian glacial waters, but man, they make some awesome weirdos. These guys make these acrylic life-sized mountable animals they refer to as Plastidermy. They suggest throwing a bunch of them together for a chandelier? Okay! Sounds kinda big, but I’m in!

They are still perfecting these phonofones, through which you can play your ipod in grand old-fashioned style, and all white ceramic sleekness as well. H-o-t.

These rule the hardest. Their planters play on a mini-sized park scene, as if your little plant is a giant park tree… the characters in the scene could be walking a dog, getting mugged, or maybe hooking! HI-larious. Under employment opportunities, they have one job opening for a Full Time Philanthropist and, “Only qualified millionaires will be considered for this prestigious position.” I’m down with your style, brahs!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

I’m not very driven when it comes to gardening, but if I were, I’d make our yard into Succulent City. Spiky, need lots of Texas sun, don’t need much water… kind of like camels, if camels lived in Texas, and were half porcupines.

If I bought up a ton of succulents, I’d probably hang out here A LOT. It’s called Gardens, and is within walking distance of our house. Tons of great spiky monsters, and big heavy pots.

On the inside, they have great heavy, natural wood tables and chairs, that I’d buy if I lived in mansion and had money to burn. They’ve got a bunch of cool knick knacks from around the globe… must be those heavy tariffs that crank the cost up so much? I’d work at Gardens, if work involved sitting around, reading their books, and watering their plants on the not hot days… I’m equally as likely to run into the Texan Camelpine.

Monday, January 21, 2008

This weekend Julie and I went up to Woodcraft to buy a vacuum press kit called the Roarockit Thin Air Press- should help me in my wood bending fantasies. Julie got her first dose of Wood Dorks there at Woodcraft… she asked if anyone had used this kit before, and one employee said, “oh well NORM used it last week, and said it worked great!” Julie was like, “oh, great… so it’s pretty good?” to which WD replies, “well, Norm likes it, so it’s like coming from the mouth of God.” Oh man. Okay… we don’t know Norm, but he must be pretty important in the woody world.

Anyway, instead of having to buy some fancy, scary EXPENSIVE vacuum press thing, this hand pump guy should be able to bend the wood I want to bend. This brah mainly designed his Thin Air Press to make skateboard decks. He has a class that teaches kids how to make their own. Wicked. Of course I’m using it for other reasons, but it’s good to know if I NEED to make a deck, I have the tools.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Birthday was great. Actually great. Calls from friends and family, wife made meatball subs, had some friend hangout time, and South Filthy played at Beerland.

Also, here’s a quick partial birthday booty rundown.

Got this book from Divya. I can’t explain how great this book is… The Trial of Colonel Sweeto. It’s great to have a friend who knows yer taste (maybe my bad taste?) and exposes you to new things you’ll love. Thanks Divs!

Got this Eccentric Soul CD stashed inside a giant guitar piñata, along with a nice bright red shirt and candy that was delivered to the workplace… Nicki Ittner style!

Another awesome Jennski print?!?! Do people get to have two of them in their house? I don’t know that I deserve to… thanks Deanna!

And now I’m the proud owner of two giant power tools. Table saw AND band saw… one from ma and pa, and one from my wife, who also got me this amazing clock all the way from Hong Kong. I have NO idea how it works. It’s like magic. Looks like a piece of wood when it ain’t plugged in, then the time appears out of nowhere once it’s powered up. Color me lucky. Thanks all yous.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

If there’s one thing a bald man loves, that’s a big breakfast. I could eat breakfast for every meal actually… donuts for every dessert. Anyway, this Manly Wednesday post is about a man-sized breffas.

Let’s start with the bacon of the month club. Yum. Forget starting up those micro breweries and locally grown coffee beans. We need more microbaconries, and that product shipped to my door… better yet, shipped directly to my frying pan.

I have to spend the majority of my day blasting away at this wretched keyboard. I’d prefer to be eating em waffle style! This typewriter waffle iron reduces the number of waffles I have to eat from 10 to 5… possibly. (Secret manly sidenote, my wife eats waffles with her hands- true.)

Have you a side of toast, of course. This pop art toaster allows you to throw in a couple naughty plates on the off chance you are eating with enemies.

If you haven’t already drank a dozen raw eggs, or even if you have, you should still have some room for fried eggs… especially if they are uzi shaped. Now you’re ready to take on the day! Mmmmm… big ole breakfast.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Yesterday I was doing some high brow food shopping at Central Market, when out of the corner of my eye I spotted Austin Monthly Home magazine. It’s a side mag of Austin Monthly, which comes out, you know… monthly. I think the “Home” edition is quarterly however… the issue I got has a little article on our neighborhood, and an in-depth article on a house we went through during the last AIA Homes tour. Twas pretty wicked. The Winter edition had an article on my wood crush Brian David Johnson, and on the opposite page, the owner of Finch, so I’ma thinking I’ve found my new employer. You listenin Austin Monthly Home?

Friday, January 11, 2008

Fairlyrandompost Friday. It’s just that I ran across this pic of these mugs that my parents got me for Christmas. They started at at stiff 45 bucks on Etsy, but one broke, and they knocked the price down to 10 bucks. I guess people prefer to drink in fours? In my house, my wife doesn’t drink coffee at all, so I have two other people to share my awesome mugs with (unless it’s Julie’s hot chocolate day, then only one person can drink out of the cool mug, and everyone else will have to battle over the following vessels: the Norwegian Cruise Line cup, the Le Montreaux Apartments cup, and the Professional Tape & Communication Supply cup).

Thursday, January 10, 2008

I sometimes look for things like rocking chairs. I enjoy a good rock… my wife likes a good rock as well, but also needs a high back in the chair. She usually loses out though to some low-backed oddity. Poor lady. Anyway, I ran across this wild looking high-backed rocker from this company called Sixixis out of England.

As I delve in further, I see they have all sorts of cool objects… mostly steam bent wood type objects. So you know… I checked it out further. This is their spring shade.

This is their large curly shade. I’ve just been learning the art of the vacuum press to bend wood, but this steam pressing must be another beast, because there ain’t no mold in the universe that will yield this kind of monster. This company might be my favorite find so far.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

My friend Deanna passed this tip on to me. Desktop pole dancer. Why not? Plug her into your USB port, and away she goes. That way she’s dancing to music I like instead of “You Shook Me All Night Long” or something… not that I DON’T like that song, but…

This is good too… it’s a shelf with a secret compartment for yer naughty mags, created for teens. It can only be opened with the accompanying ring. Funny funny funny. I’m going to start up a line of secret compartment furniture maybe? Maybe I just found my niche!

Monday, January 7, 2008

I spent the weekend watching my first round of David Marks and Woodworks on the DIY channel (he made this here dovetail bench). Oh man. I haven’t learned anything from the television since Electric Company. I’m turning that around.

I also rediscovered Furni. It’s company run by a couple bros in Montreal. They design and build a variety of things, but mostly these rad clocks. This here is the Gator.

This is the Alba clock. I just ordered my first clock hands. Highly considering buying this digital clock face though as well. They include the face and buttons to make your own alarm clock. They've also been having a competition to see who holds the wickedest clock creation.

The other great thing about these Canuks is their flickr page, which shows their behind the scenes working. I like to see how pro these people are, and learn learn learn PicturePages style.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Sometimes I’m slow at blogging. I’ve been doing some writing about Austin, its cool parts, its events, and its old neighborhoods. We live in such a neighborhood. I just wrote a little article about Travis Heights, and it seems crazy how Austin was dirt roads and horses and, “How-we-gonna-cross-that-river?” not that long ago. Our house was built in 1937. The original owners said our street used to be a dirt road, and “way up north”, not the center of town like it’s considered now (I mean we could walk to downtown if we felt all walky). This is a picture of Pemberton Castle from 1927, which is 5 blocks from our house. And there are many many houses and big old trees in between. Doing this writing is making me history-gay. Kind of.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

There was a day when I sold blank video tape. Those were rough days, but I did sell quite a bit to Liz Lambert who shot a documentary of the hotel she was renovating on South Congress here in Austin. Now it’s the San Jose, and it rules. Pricey but awesome. Great pool, great rooms, great outside patio. Now she’s setting up shop in Marfa Texas. Lady is renovating this old 40s and 50s Spartan trailers, and plopping them around in a circle calling the place El Cosmico. Their interiors are all birchy wicked. Julie and I have always kicked around the idea of going to Marfa, for its cool art, music, ghoulish lights, etc… maybe when Liz wraps up this project, or at least has one Spartan we can sleep in, we’ll go. Dwell Magazine took some great pics of this place, in for their November issue.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Happy New Year! We rang in 08 by seeing the movie, The Orphanage, about scary dead kids. Timely enough, I ran across Swedish ceramic designer Ann-Louise Gustavsson, who is cranking out some seriously great/funny stuff that could work for the Manly Wednesday update, though Ann-Louise is obviously an Ann-Louise. Take for instance, item one she calls “Trophy.” Oh man… Toddlers aren’t that hard to hunt, but baggin one with glowing eyes? It’s like finding an 80 point buck with wings.

This one really kills me though. Our friends have this funny move they like to pull (stolen from a movie?) that begins with a smile and a wave, then ends in a full finger flip off. This pretty flower arrangement reminds me those jerks I call friends. I believe I could be friends with Ann-Louise… I’m sure my wife wouldn’t mind. She’s from Sweden right? Yeah, no problem.